Lonely Country, totally unfair ?

[HexMaster]

I just played the Lonely Country scenario in CMBB. It seemed pretty unfair to me. Has anyone got any tips on how to play this as the Soviets, and has anyone actually won it as the Soviets :confused:

The problem when playing the Soviets, is that the Germans have 2 Stug3 that can overlook most of the battlefield. They totally outgun the T34s at their initial distance of about 700m.

Crossing the area with just infantry is also extremely hard, since they have to move 700m under fire, in just 20 mins.

Any ideas?

[Keith]

You have got to use Scoot and Shoot tactics with the Soviet armor. If you try to go toe-to-toe with the Stugs you will consistantly get spanked. Once you KO or disable one of the Stugs try fast moving a portion of your armor down into the valley out of line of sight of the remaining German Stugs. Meanwile try to sneak your infantry forward and try to uncover any German infantry along the road.

[Berlichtingen]

Just a note. This scenario was designed to illustrate why the Soviets feared StuGs, and why the Germans used the StuG brigades to prop up armor weak infantry formations

[Zakalwe]

I've been practising Soviet tactics (and especially T-34 tactics) for about a fortnight now, so I decided to put my skills to test in this scenario. I took the Russians and gave the German AI +1 experience and +25% handicap.

A quick game resulted in a 79-21 tactical victory for the Red Army. A short replay follows...

SPOILERS:

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(all directions refer to Soviet perspective)

I massed all my armour on the left, with infantry as riders. One platoon advanced on foot. The company HQ, two Maxims and one ATR formed a firebase near the road.

I sent the tanks at full speed to the left. After a while, a German ATG knocked out one of the tanks, but all others reached the shelter of the woods on the left. Then they advanced in short leaps and bounds (heavy use of the pause command here). One Stug started to move against the formation, and was spotted and repeatedly plinked by the ATR. By careful timing I overwhelmed the Stug and killed it while losing one T-34.

The infantry dismounted at this stage (some involuntarily) and set up a line about 200 m from the woods next to the flag. The T-34s engaged the guns and silenced them with the aid of infantry. One T-34 lost its gun in the process. At the same time, the second Stug appeared, and again the combined fire of the T-34s first immobilised and then destroyed it. One flanking T-34 was destroyed by infantry.

Then I parked the remaining tanks about 70 m from the German infatry positions anfd proceeded to pound them into pieces. After a few turns the bypassed infantry started to move towards the flag, and my MGs and infantry cut them down in the fields.

The last turns saw me just pressing the go button. I probably could have bettered the score a bit, but I had no stomach for pixel atrocities.

Overall a nice, fast and fairly challenging scenario. It does highlight the importance of getting close and massing fire when facing superior German AFVs with Soviet tanks.

Zak

[Chief Trois]

Zak:

I tried the full speed up the left draw gambit, as you did, but still got picked apart by the Stus when I advanced to the right with Move to Contact commands. What did you mean by the use of the pause command, and how are you coordinating your fire on the Stus? (I batter 'em at 100m and they seem to shrug it all off.)

I have't managed better than a tactical defeat, and when I tried to overload a flank and pop away from the Russian start positions, I wound up with 20 dead T-34s and all Stus unharmed in 2 tries.